Estimating the Ages of Children in Nonliterate Populations

Abstract

Due to problems in determining the specific ages of children in societies where age records are inaccurate or nonexistent, an alternative age estimation technique is described. This technique involves observation of the exact stage of tooth eruption at each position in the mouth, making possible simultaneous utilization of a wide variety of known dental landmarks in making age judgments. The method, in a pilot study, produced a correlation of .92 between estimated and actual ages within a sample of 131 children in Ghana. This correlation exceeds those found using other age estimation procedures.